Job Description Basics

Job Description is a critical component of an entire employment lifecycle from recruitment to termination. Its format and content could be substantially different at every phase of the lifecycle. The first instance of job description is the one used during recruitment. Before covering the structure of a job description let me point out a few important objectives that it should cater to. The job description should

• act as a marketing / promotional material for the company and the position (commercial)
• educate candidate about the company and position (infomercial)
• filter out people not qualified for the position in positive manner (gatekeeper)

Sometimes job descriptions cater to different objectives or to just one of the above mentioned, that’s not exceptionally common and I won’t cover substantial changes to the structure that may be required in such case. In general a job description should have the following components: